Barr Beacon Quarry

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Introduction

Barr Beacon Quarry Introduction Barr Beacon Quarry is a disused quarry which hasn't been worked since the 1920's, and was quarried for sandstone required for local buildings. The quarry consists of 2 different rocks laid down horizontally on top of one another. Plan I aim to find out the environments of deposition of each rock, for example desert conditions, shallow marine water, deep marine water, and river conditions. Hypothesis I think that both rocks had different deposition environments and one rock water deposited in water and one on land. Method 1. I first studied a photograph of the quarry to select the areas that I am going to study in closer detail. 2. I will draw sketches of the whole quarry and of smaller section in greater detail in order to obtain a greater knowledge of the rock. 3. I will describe the rocks in multiple places using sketches to aid me. ...read more.

Middle

Climbing the sandstone cliff in order to get to the pebble layer may prove hazardous and therefore shoes with good grip are necessary. Method of Sieving Using stacked sieves of different grades I can work out the composition of the sandstone in grain sizes. Pour sandstone sample into top (coarsest) sieve and shake until all possible grades have been penetrated. Remove each sieve by turn and weigh the contents and record the value. This data can then be put into a bar chart table in order to classify the sandstone. Classifying the sandstone will help me to identify the environment of deposition of the sandstone, as certain environments contain only one grade of sand, be it medium grained for desert, fine grain for deep water or coarse grained for rivers. Analysis Sandstone Red-brown to orange-brown in colour, very well rounded grains, comprises of small < 2mm grains of sand in thin layers, occasionally thin dark clay layers and occasionally angular stones, 2-20mm across. ...read more.

Conclusion

I have drawn a rose diagram to show these results. Conclusion I have identified results that prove my hypothesis correct, for example the colour, lack of mica, the round grains, the lack of fossils, the uniform grain size and the cross lamination on the sandstone layer proves that the sandstone was deposited on land and in a desert, and the uniform direction of the pebbles and the medium to coarse grain size in the pebble layer proves that the pebble layer was deposited in water in a river. Evaluation Sampling the sandstone and the pebble layer creates problems because sampling relies on the layers being completely uniform, which they obviously are not. One anomaly that I found in the sandstone layer was the angular stones, which don't fit in a desert and throw off the cross lamination that indicates that it was formed in a desert. The procedure used had to rely on sampling the area, as it was too big to cover accurately. To improve it you could take more samples of the sandstone from different heights, as this would represent different times in geological history. Robert Cooke 03/05/072 ...read more.

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